Sunday Catch-Up ... Ketchup...

Where to begin? It seems like a lot has happened over the past few days!

I finally have something exciting to say when people ask me how my classes are going now that I've attended my phenomenal creative writing class on Friday...

The class is 9:30 to 12:20 on Friday mornings, so this Friday I dragged myself out of bed despite the pouring rain and wind, and headed out to catch the bus up to campus. This class is in a building I had never been to before, so I left a little early to find my way... and it's a good thing I did. I got off near Wai te ata road, right where I needed to be, and thought "oh how nice, just a short walk. I won't even be out in the rain for long." Wrong. I walked down, looking for 16 Wai te ata road, but conveniently discovered that the buildings were numbered up to 13, and beyond that was just a big athletic field. I walked the length of the (hilly) road 3 times before finally running into someone who I could ask directions from. The fact that I could barely pronounce the name of the street didn't help much. By this point I was kind of panicing about being late to class, soaked from the rain, sweaty, and had a bad blister bleeding through my sock, Curt Schilling style. The directions I got were too complicated for me I guess, because I still couldn't find it and walked up and down the road twice more. Finally I ran into another person who helped me find it. Wellington is mad hilly and a lot of the buildings up on hills are actually accessed through little paths and staircases that are hard to figure out, and that was the case. When I finally arrived my luck had changed because I walked into the coolest class imaginable.

First of all, the "classroom" is just kind of a big living room of this house which has two walls that are almost entirely windows, floor to ceiling, that look out over the entire city and harbor. Amazing atmosphere. Secondly, the class only has 10 other students... a big change from my other two classes that are lecture centers filled to capacity. I'll take this opportunity to brag about how for every person who made it into the class there were 4 others who didn't. (A ten page portfolio was required to apply for the class). I'm pretty proud of myself ;)

Anyway the professor is cool and the other people are really talented. We had to write a bit and read our work to the class; A good way to break the ice on the first day and get a sense of everyone's style. Another cool thing is that we get a 15 minute break in the middle of class, and there is a kitchen we can use to make coffee, tea, or snacks. After break everyone is sipping out of borrowed, mismatched mugs. It's really laid back and different from any other class I've taken. I'm really excited about it. I'm gonna go early next week and get some pictures of the "classroom" and the view.

On to an ever popular topic of my blog: food.

This was dinner last night:

:) Yum.

Today I woke up super early and went to the farmers market by the harbor. It's worth it. Overwhelming amounts of fruits and vegetables for really cheap. Look at my beautiful purchases! Can't wait to cook this stuff up! I'm making some stir fry with beef or chicken tomorrow night for dinner!!! It's funny how pretty much everything seems to be in season at the same time here in New Zealand. There were peaches right next to the butternut squash.

In other news, I attended an event where I finally met my "buddy" Simon (a New Zealander pen pal I've been paired up with) who ended up being really cool. He invited me to a party he was having at his place that night (Friday) so I went and brought a few of my friends along, too. His house was way up in the hills and when we got there the view of the city at night was incredible. I was really glad to finally get to a party full of kiwis and not majorly made up of international students. Him and his friends were really nice and we all had a really good time. We went to a few bars and clubs, and ended up getting burgers at 3am. Success.

Oh also, another new experience: Booze provided and flowing freely at school functions. The drinking age is 18 here so it's different. They didn't cheap us out either... Everyone was feelin' pretty good by the time they left the international welcome dinner. (It was right after the buddy event).

So last night Tim and I hiked up to Boo's new place and hung out there for a few hours before getting completely drenched on the walk to the bars/home so we just called it a night. Boo is a friend of mine, and a fellow rugby teammate from home who was studying abroad in Christchurch and just transferred to Victoria after the earthquake. It's so crazy to have someone you know show up in the same city as you on the other side of the planet.

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Phew! Long update! Time to make some late lunch and continue my relaxing Sunday with some serious chill out time.